trisnic:

Thanks for the apology, but it wasn't necessary - I knew you and a few other folks had just misread the spirit of my post - it's easy to do when you don't have the benefit of facial expressions and voice inflections like you do in face-to-face conversation.

It seems to me the ferret issue is much like the pot-bellied pig issue. A town neighboring mine has recently told one of its residents they had a ban against "livestock" on residential plots so she would have to remove her pot-bellied pig. Fortunately, alot of animal lovers have come to the aid of "Eli" by going to the Hurst city council and explaining that pot bellied pigs are clean, affectionate, loyal, superiorly intelligent animals. (One newspaper feature article I read said they are reputed to be fourth in line in intelligence - only behind man, large primates, and dolphins.) This little guy had his own little house in the back yard, was trained to do his "business" in an isolated part of the yard, was quiet, and spent his day minding his own business and sipping Dr. Pepper. The city council gave him a reprieve, and the Dr. Pepper people (whose corporate offices are in nearby Dallas) jumped on the opportunity for a little advertising opportunity and threw him a celebratory party, complete with gifts of Dr. Pepper sweaters and six-packs! But the story is not over, because the vote on whether to exclude pot-bellied pigs from the "livestock" law or grandfather existing pigs has yet to be voted on.

Being the libertarian that I am, I think there should be few laws about what kind of pets people cannot have. Some obviously need to be legislated for public safety reasons, like big cats. But being the animal lover I am, I think there are many animals that people shouldn't have. But I personally don't think pot-bellied pigs or ferrets belong in the category (thanks for all the folks who e-mailed me with ferret links!).